Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Review (Xbox 360)

STAFF REVIEW of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Xbox 360)

Tuesday, November 8, 2011.
by Stephen Cameron

Why do I feel Call of Duty is like that yearly sports game!?!?! Anyways (off topic). Grab your guns (controllers) and your fake military experience folks, and go find yourselves one hell of a comfortable seat. Call of Duty is in the house!

Before I jump into the review, most of you know that Infinity Ward didn?t get completely dissolved. They found themselves in bed with a newly formed company called Sledgehammer Games. Who are they? They are a conglomerate of employees that worked on games such as Dead Space, Ratchet and Clank and Afro Samurai. As you can see, there?s definitely talent behind this title, and we?re in good hands.

Let?s get started, most of you will be happy to see that the usual suspects are all there. The beautiful story of the campaign, the Mutt and Jeff (Co-op flavored) Spec Ops, and the highly sought after online multiplayer mode.
My personal favorite will always be sinking my teeth in the campaign though. Why? Because, I get my one hundred percent fix all in one place. Heart-pounding cinematic action, awesome storytelling, and bullets flying all over the place! MW3?s story takes numerous key aspects from the previous Modern Warfare tiles and attempts to tie up a few loose ends. It certain instances you see those old missions from a completely different perspective, pretty cool stuff.Don?t get me wrong, it?s not all rehashed levels here, they just use those levels to push the story along. Calm down! We get to play in some familiar old shoes, one being John Price. He is my hero! (I just needed to say that.)

In various parts of the campaign I found myself pushing my character a little too far. What I mean is, in one of the missions (again, trying not to spoil anything) the plane was tearing itself in half and I was standing a little too close to the edge, then found myself flying out the plane to my death! I stood back and said to myself, ?Yes, you idiot, back your ass up!? This wasn?t the only part where this happened, so prepare yourselves for several of those small surprises.

The campaign overall took roughly five hours on regular to complete. It?s a tad short, but I was really muscling my way through the campaign to give you guys this awesome review. Aren?t I just thoughtful?

On a side note, being a parent, there was actually a very brief part of the story that really bugged me. Again, I'll give every effort not to give away any spoilers. I don't believe the scene in question was really necessary. If the intension of the developers was to make me emotionally mad or make me stand out of my chair and yell out ?Wolverines!?, it didn?t work. It honestly bummed me out actually, and I thought to myself, ?Wow, they actually went there?. Personally, I feel that if games are going to use major emotional events to tell a story they should use it in full force. I felt this event was just thrown in there, because Homefront did in a similar fashion. It held no real weight to the main story. However, at the beginning I had a chance to ?opt-out? of seeing the whole thing. But, I really didn?t know what I was really ?opting out? to. Can?t have your cake and eat it too I guess.

If you are looking for that Hollywood action packed single player campaign we have all come to love, it?s all here! Plus, the ending will not disappoint.

Let?s talk about ?Spec-Ops?. Since its first introduction in Modern Warfare 2, ?Spec-Ops? has really grown on me, and everyone else I suppose. The newest feature added this time is ?Survival?. What is ?Survival?? The simplest way to explain it is that it?s Horde mode. That?s Gears of War for those of you that have been living under a rock.
The introduction of ?Survival? in the Modern Warfare series is welcomed with open arms. I personally had several hours of enjoyment with this mode in particular. As the waves of enemies increases, your access to more and more powerful weapons increases equally.

Both ?Survival? and ?Mission? modes each have sixteen (16) different levels each, so there?s a large amount of levels to entertain us. I?ve personally spent several hours going through this mode with a friend, and let me tell you, it?s not just the same old, same old!

In contrast, in one of the ?Missions?, you have to guide your coop partner through a map while you control a camera-controlled high powered turret gun. So, your friend can see a full spectrum of color and range of motion and then only have a black and white view, and you only have a small radius to turn the gun and camera. It made for interesting gameplay.

?Spec-Ops? also has its own ranking and progression system, which means it?s completely separate from the online multiplayer (death matching and all that) ranking system. So, it will match you up with people your speed in that game mode.

I?m not a huge online multiplayer guy. Why? Because I?ve played so much multiplayer in my past, than I care to remember. Does this mean the multiplayer in MW3 is bad? No, absolutely not. To be honest, I only spent a couple of hours playing. What I can I tell you is that it?s more new and improved multiplayer goodness in the game.

Out of the box, the game will ship with sixteen multiplayer maps. However, the ability to build custom matches has been greatly improved. Through the Elite service, players can vote on newly uploaded modes, that can eventually make their way to public playlists! Fan-boy?s wet dream!
A new addition to multiplayer mode is the progression of your weapon! There?s a full range of new toys and candy here. Too many to list! The biggest, and piles of fun is Kill Confirmed. To explain this in its simplest form; you run around collect dog tags, and you have to prevent the other team of getting theirs. Awesome! It creates interesting gaming dynamics.

The largest part about the multiplayer is the introduction of the pay-per-year Elite service. I love when companies are doing cutting edge thing with gaming, and this is it when it comes to first person shooters.

I had a chance to get a sneak peek at the Elite service, the main thing I can share here is, the clans and multiplayer hardcore gang will lose their minds. Simple.
Overall, Infinity Ward (what?s left of the original gang) and Sledgehammer Games have stayed loyal to the Call of Duty and Modern Warfare brand in the name of all their loyal fans. However, you get a lot of content for your hard earned sixty bux! Also, if you don?t play online in clan or massive amounts of multiplayer, you can skip the Elite service subscription and still enjoy a well done game.

Over and out!

Overall: 9.6 / 10
Gameplay: 9.6 / 10
Visuals: 9.8 / 10
Sound: 9.4 / 10

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STAFF REVIEW of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Xbox 360)

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